Have cheese, will travel. A nomad writes

Editor’s Note: Mr Harrap caught my eye on Twitter before Christmas, when he tweeted a question about Bridport not seeming very busy. He described himself as a “nomad in the cheese industry” and I thought, what’s going on here then? I was intrigued by the unusual combination of those two words “cheese” and “nomad” – and by the idea of such a figure wandering around Bridport – so last week, when I saw that he was heading off to Denmark, I asked Mr Harrap to tell us more.

I had another reason too. One of the most under-reported aspects of West Dorset’s economic and cultural life is the number of people who regularly head out from its small towns and villages to work much further afield. It’s a factor that’s had a significant effect on the housing market of West Dorset – and, behind the scenes, on policies affecting the building of new housing. So, I was curious to hear an unvarnished account of how someone came to live in West Dorset but work across the world. And this (lightly edited) is what Mr Harrap wrote…

JONATHAN HUDSTON at Real West Dorset has been following me on Twitter and he challenged me to explain my biographical comment: “Nomad in the cheese industry”! Fair enough, such cryptic devices do need teasing out at times.

Wikipedia thankfully defines three types of nomads, the last being: “Peripatetic nomads, who offer the skills of a craft or trade to those they travel among… [they are] most common in industrialized nations.” That will satisfy our needs during the following.

In the 1970s I left school only to find the oil crisis of 1973-74 making life in the UK uninspiring. So, I took off around the world, travelling for eight years, working in oil and mineral exploration in Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe. This was my introduction to a nomadic lifestyle, and I wasn’t the only one; there were and still are plenty of folk moving around the planet for work.

For a brief time I found myself milking cows on a kibbutz in Israel, the milk going to the local cheese factory. Little did I know such a seed of an experience would return to flower later in life!

After undertaking a course at the University of East Anglia in Development Studies, (an academic version of nomadism if ever there was one!), and doing a post-graduate research degree on farm forestry, it was time to settle the “yurt” in one place with a wife and young family.

Sadly the recession of 1990-91 hit hard and work was difficult to find. My partner and I decided to up sticks, “retire” to Dorset and allow fate to take its course.

Fortunately, after a couple of false starts, I was offered a job at the Ashley Chase Estate cheese house. Mike Harp, the cheesemaker, and Cedric Littman, the owner, managed the farmhouse-cheesemaking at Park Farm in the Bride Valley: quite an idyllic spot as anyone who knows this area of West Dorset will know.

Having established sales of farmhouse cheese in the area, there was at that time no opportunity for me to expand operations further as the business was already committed to working with wholesalers on the national market… but there was perhaps exporting. This was 1995: the Littmans understood the importance of computers to the business and we had the opportunity to go off to see this newfangled internet stuff with the launch of Tim Snape’s West Dorset Internet service in Abbotsbury. We immediately got Ashley Chase up on the internet and waited for things to happen!

It’s the same for everyone isn’t it, surrounding fate – it’s all down to people.

One day James Hamriding the West Dorset District Council (WDDC) Economic Development Officer called into the farm office and the word “export” was mentioned. James suggested that as WDDC was supporting businesses to develop export activity we should look at the upcoming Europartenariat in Lisbon. These EU sponsored “B2B” events were then taking place across Europe twice a year. In for a penny in for a pound – well £150 all in! – I took off to Lisbon.

As a self-certified “nomad,” travelling to Lisbon would be a doddle, I thought. But what a wake-up call. A learning curve like no other – there were 3000 business people at the event from across Europe all keen to make connections – the energy and buzz was quite overwhelming and addictive. Whilst “old school” business mentality had expectations of only selling product and services, EU expectations were for a deeper cooperation to develop between businesses and nations. It certainly was a constructive environment at the outset of the internet age.

The scope to really undertake cheese exports at that time was still in its infancy for a small farmhouse producer (not now by the way), and I moved on to Dorset Cereals who were conquering the world with their fabulous breakfast cereals. Terry Crabb, the founder of the business, kindly gave me the freedom to research and implement an extension to their 24 overseas markets. In three years we managed to open 12 additional markets, taking the cereals to Japan, Canada and Israel to name but a few. Having picked up two consecutive Cereal Exporter of the Year awards in 1997-8 from the Government’s Food from Britain organization and the Queen’s Award for Exports in 1999, I was offered a new role back in the dairy industry with North Downs Dairy – better known through its brand Pilgrims Choice.

So, since 1999, I have been travelling the world extolling the virtues of British cheese and making sure that people know that cheddar originated from the West Country! We have clients in over 40 countries on five continents and with an exporting business you have to travel and visit the clients and their markets – you learn so much more that way. As well as visiting clients I get to attend many food fairs around the world and meet up with the familiar faces of other “peripatetic nomads” in our industry.

The first part of this journey started in the 70s with one recession, developed further with the 90s recession and now we’re in the depths of a new phase of economic upheaval and one hopes that my knowledge and experience will now lead on to further endeavours on the road.